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CKR Seminar: Should We Punish Sweating Statues?
10/31/2024 @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Should We Punish Sweating Statues?: Confucian Discourses on Buddhist Miracles at the Chosŏn Court
TIME: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2024, 6:00 – 7:30 PM
LOCATION: Kent Hall, Lounge 403
SPEAKER: Professor Youn-mi Kim (Ewha Women’s University)
On October 31, Columbia University’s Center for Korean Research offers a wonderful opportunity to attend a guest lecture by Prof. Kim Youn-mi, a scholar of East Asian Buddhist art history. In the lecture, Kim will explore why the perspiration miracles of Buddhist statues posed a persistent challenge at the Confucian court of Chosŏn. Unlike other Buddhist miracles, which the court largely ignored, reports of sweating statues from across the country were consistently brought to the attention of both the court and the king. The heated 1662 debates over whether to destroy the stone Buddhas at Poguksa, reported for their recent perspiration, provide key insights into the political significance of such miracles. Prof. Kim reveals that Confucian scholars interpreted perspiration miracles as chaeyi 災異 (ominous portents), signaling potential disasters, uprisings, or even the king’s death. In so doing, Prof. Kim traces the origins of these beliefs to ancient China and examines how the perception evolved in Korea, spreading to other media.
About the Speaker
Youn-mi Kim is Associate Professor of Asian Art History at Ewha Womans University. Prior to joining the Ewha faculty, she worked as Assistant Professor at Yale University (2012-16) and Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University (2011-12). She earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2010. She is the editor of New Perspectives on Early Korean Art: From Silla to Koryo (Korea Institute, Harvard University Press, 2013); and a co-editor of Pokchang, the special issue of Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 28 (2019) and the Dhāraṇī and Mantra in Ritual, Art, and Text, a special issue of the International Journal of Buddhist Thought and Culture 30, no. 2 (2020). A grantee of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Research Fellowships in Buddhist Studies 2018, she is currently completing her book manuscripts, entitled Architecture of Virtuality: Pagodas of the Liao Empire (907-1125).
This event requires registration. Please scan the QR code on the attached flyer to complete your registration for in-person attendance!
